This invention relates to a connector which mainly accommodates male terminals, and which is so designed as to prevent the terminals from being incorrectly inserted into the connector housing.
FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view showing a conventional connector disclosed by Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 218081/1986.
In FIG. 4, reference numeral 24 designates a female connector housing formed by molding synthetic resin; and 25, a male tab terminal accommodated in the female connector housing 24.
The female connector housing 24 is made up of two portions. One of the two portions is a fitting portion 26 provided for a mating male connector (not shown), and the other is an accommodating portion 27 provided for the male tab terminal 25.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view, with part cut away, showing the connector housing 24. In the accommodating portion 27, as shown in FIG. 5, a flexible locking lance 32 is protruded obliquely forwardly from the upper inner wall 29 of a terminal accommodating chamber 28. The flexible locking lance 32 has a locking protrusion 31 which is adapted to engage with a middle shoulder 30 of the male tab terminal 25. Furthermore, a male tab lead-out hole 35 is provided at the inner end of the terminal accommodating chamber 28; that is, it is formed in a partition wall 34 between the terminal accommodating chamber 28 and a mating connector fitting chamber 33 in such a manner that it is communicated with the fitting chamber 33. In addition, a guide wall 39 is formed between the male tab lead-out hole 35 and a stripping hole 36 for the locking lance 32 in such a manner that it has a surface 38 which is sloped downwardly for the male tab (or an electrical contact part) 37.
The connector thus constructed suffers from the following difficulty: When, as shown in FIG. 6, the male tab terminal 25 is obliquely upwardly inserted into the terminal accommodating chamber 28 in the housing 24, the end portion 37a of the male tab 37 rides over the guide wall 39 to go into stripping hole 36; that is, the male tab terminal 25 is liable to be incorrectly inserted into the connector housing.